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CITY OF DUBOIS Page 157
He was then required to furnish the certificate of 12 electors of
his district that what he had set forth in his petition was true and
that this house was necessary.
Some of these houses catered more largely to boarders
than to the traveling public. The number of bedrooms would probably
be two with two beds in each room.
The writer has stopped in what was considered good
hotels when he would share his bed with some other traveler. This
was not occasional, but was very frequent and the landlord would
sort out his guests to find congenial persons to "double up" in the
rooms.
These old hostelries did not have running water and the
outhouses were usually kept in rather a disagreeable condition. As a
rule there was no heating apparatus in the building. The first floor
would be heated with stoves, and occasionally a hot air system would
be established for heating the second floor. In winter time in the
morning one always bathed his face in ice water. The windows of the
bedroom would be coated with frost, and at night the occupant was
glad to crawl into bed in his underclothes.
The hotel license was a monopoly. It was recognized as
a necessity and if the proprietor of a house became dissolute and
disreputable the license would not be taken away until the owner of
the house had had an opportunity to substitute a landlord who would
be acceptable to the Court. On several occasions in DuBois landlords
were so obnoxious that they committed nuisances in their own dining
room and were found under the table stupidly drunk. However, the
Court said that this house was necessary and the license would not
be granted to the old proprietor, but it would be held up until a
new one could be substituted.
The theory was that before a hotel proprietor could
sell a meal he would have to wait until somebody came in and got
drunk to get enough profit to furnish his table.
Under the law the Judge of the Court of Quarter
Sessions was required to fix the annual date for the hearing of
applications for license to sell liquor. In Clearfield County this
date usually was the first Monday of March.
There were always a number of new applicants, and for
some time prior to the License Court there would be a rush of people
from the larger places to Clearfield to interview the local
politicians at that place and to press the application of the one
who was supposed to be able to deliver the most votes.
One person in high authority in politics in the County
made the statement that in his opinion it was wise to have a certain
number in the opposite party holding licenses.
Some of the hardest fights were made among the liquor
men themselves. A lawyer representing a license application would
learn that his client had employed some other lawyer to oppose the
grant-
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